Coming of Age Films—Lady Bird

Written by Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird [2017] tells the story of a 17-year-old’s senior year in high school. She struggles with her mom, her family situation, wanting to have sex and—mostly—trying to get out of Sacramento and into a college in the East… as she says in the film, “Like Yale, but not Yale because I probably couldn’t get in.”

BTW, the character’s real name is Christine but insists that everyone call her Lady Bird. She says it’s a name she gave herself, it’s the name she wants. By the end of the film, she’s introducing herself as Christine. So in a way, she’s coming into herself—her real self—Christine.

People have asked Greta Gerwig if this is an autobiographical film because she’s from Sacramento and she did go East to a special college—Barnard. But Gerwig insists that nothing that happened in the film happened in her life. Though she says the name Lady Bird came to her because of something a nurse said when she [Greta] was born: “She’s as pretty as a ladybird.” But Greta says she knew Sacramento, she knew the struggles of a character like this and wanted to write about it.

More than anything, Lady Bird wants to get out on her own to make a life that is nothing like the one she has as a 17-year-old in Sacramento. Take a look at the trailer for the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=cNi_HC839Wo

One of the really appealing things about this film is the original main character. She’s not as obvious and predictable as many heroines. And her mother in the film is also so incredibly nuanced. In the trailer above, notice how, when Lady Bird says to her mother “What if this is the best me?” and her mother doesn’t even answer—just looks at her as if she’s saying “Seriously? This is SO not the best you.”

That is what writers do. Writers write nuanced moments that don’t involve dialogue and aren’t huge paragraphs long. And that ain’t easy! You need to be able to get inside a character and imagine how a raised eyebrow or eye-roll or shrug might communicate exactly what you want people to get about that character, in that moment. It’s a great example of how, when you’re writing, less is definitely more!

If you get a chance, this is a good film to spend some time studying. Notice how the dialogue often surprises you. That’s the mark of dialogue that’s exceptional—that takes you somewhere you didn’t realize you were going. And each character is unpredictable—and takes you places you might not have been able to predict.

This is a special film—worth all the accolades it received and worth your time to really study as you work on making your own writing that nuanced.

Copyright © Diane Lake

07Nov21

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